Hazmat Tech Team

Our MABAS Div. is wanting to start a tech level hazmat team. Problem is no $$ to do so. Our first step is level A suits to be used for rescue purposes since we have the personnel ( 15 techs ) but not the equipment. Does anyone know of any excess equipment out there? We train at the tech level once a month but we're stuck with our opps trailer / equipment for now. Currently the nearest tech team is 1 1/2 hours away.

What div? Pmed is right work with mabas, although I'm not sure if they want to fully equip another team they are looking to fill equipment gaps in existing teams. Are you schedule for validation? Are you OSHA tecs or fire marshal tecs?? A or B??

MABAS doesn't seem to want to fund anymore teams at this time. Like you said they are still trying to fill equipment gaps in existing teams. We are OSFM tech A's with one tech B. We have reached out to businesses within our reasponse area that would directly benifit from us obtainning such equipment in the event of a spill or release with limited success.

I was glad to see FM instead of OSHA, that class is a joke. I doubt you'll ever get mabas to fund your team, unless they have one disband, currently there are 40plus teams around the state. Now with that said; the validation process is slow for hazmat, there may be a team or 2 that won't be able to come up with the number of people to maintain so keep your hopes up, failure to validate will result in loss of equipment. Mabas wants 30 man roster with 10 per team which is what you'll need to validate. All is not lost yet, keep up your refresher hours, I believe the last teams are schedule for this in 2012.